On Birthday Parties, and Turning One.

Today was Tristin's first birthday party! Despite a rough start to the day (I was unable to find one of the necessary ingredients for the frosting recipe I was planning on using, which resulted in a less-than-perfect substitute), we had an absolutely fabulous day! We went swimming for about an hour at the local Rec Centre, which has a wave pool (edit: amazing wave pool!) and a toddler pool (edit: fabulous toddler pool). Tristin had such a wonderful time swimming there that it has strengthened my resolve to get out swimming at least every other week this summer, more if possible! In fact, he was so tired after swimming that I'm kind of inclined to do it many, MANY times this summer as we work towards sleeping 6-7 hours at night. But I digress.

After swimming, we had a little party in the upstairs rec room, which was probably one of the best ideas I've ever had in my life. Despite the cake falling short of my hopes, and despite several last-minute cancellations, we still had a great time with 3 of Tristin's best friends (almost more like cousins really!), half-a-dozen aunties and uncles, and my parents and grandmother. Words can't describe how happy it makes me that Tristin's great-grandmother got to be there to celebrate his first birthday! All in all, it was a great time - and a learning experience: always, ALWAYS make a practice cake first!

On Baptisms and Birthdays.

So, the baptism has come and gone, and it was fabulous. Well, except for my forgetting to put batteries in the camera, so I am waiting oh-so-patiently for somebody, anybody, else to post some on facebook so that I can steal them.

I stayed up until two o'clock the night before, finishing up those little last-minute things like scrubbing the floors by hand (stupid cheap laminate flooring) and putting away toys. But the house was actually clean when I left for Mass, so I was satisfied. (Wess then proceeded to leave doors open that should have been closed, since the closets were quite beyond my powers of redemption, but that's another matter.) We went to Mass; we had a little break between Mass and the Baptism; everybody who needed to be there showed up; the ceremony was lovely; my son was anointed with chrism and welcomed into the Holy Catholic Church. My goal for the day was accomplished.

Then we had a party at my house! My stepmum catered it for me, which was amazing since basically all I had the energy to do after a marathon of cleaning and moving furniture (note: kitchen tables, even cheaply made kitchen tables, require a minimum of two people to move upstairs) was sit and eat! She made some fabulous little sandwichy things, brownies, poppyseed cake, cookies, and all kinds of great finger food. I had a wonderful time, and so did Wess (or at least, he was being a darned good sport about the whole thing). All in all, the day was awesome.

Next up: Birthday party, T-minus 12 days and counting (since his birthday is on a Thursday this year, we're having the party a bit early because weekends just work better all around). Wish me luck!

On Easter, and Being Lazy.

+Clearly, I haven't been updating this as often as I intended when I started out. I plead an enormous backup of laundry resulting from the trip, and the stress of trying to plan Tristin's Baptism and Birthday parties while trying to find work and a daycare. More on all of those things in their own time. First, Easter!

Tristin's first Easter was fantastic. I joined about 25 of my closest family members in our traditional dinner on Good Friday. Every year, since my dad and his sibs were kids, our family has gone to the Old Spaghetti factory downtown for Good Friday dinner. This tradition began when my grandfather won a family dinner gift certificate from some raffle or something. (Joke was on the restaurant; my grandparents had ten kids!) Anyways, every year thereafter, Grandpa Bus took his family out for dinner. And, despite his having passed away a few years ago, many of us continue the tradition - in fact, any of us who are in town will generally come. We make the reservations shortly after Christmas. I'm pretty sure that the manager of the restaurant actually has us in the training manual. And this year was awesome, as usual - Tristin was passed from table to table, meaning that I got to eat, and he got to meet some of his out-of-town cousins, aunts and uncles, great-aunts and great-uncles, inlaws and outlaws! What fun!

Then, on Sunday, we went to Easter Mass (which, I might add, I was highly impressed with, considering the logistics of having some 350 people attend a Mass in a chapel that doesn't usually see more than 100 and can only seat about 60 on a regular Sunday; Mass didn't even last longer than usual!), followed by a much-needed nap and then off to dinner at my parents' house, where Wess joined us for the first time in recorded history for Easter dinner. Again, about 30 of my closest family members joined us - and we kicked things off with the annual 30-and-under Easter Egg hunt. I lost, miserably, but felt good about it since I shelled out some of my findings to cousins whose shoes had been stolen! Man, we're a cutthroat bunch when it comes to chocolate! Dinner was fantastic - a potluck which yielded fantastical results (though not NEARLY enough potatoes for an Irish family get-together; the taters were gone before half the people had served themselves dinner!), and hanging out with the fam afterwards is always wonderful. It's funny, Easter is actually more of a family thing in my family than Christmas, even; I think it's because at Christmas we tend to divide into our sub-families of parents and sibs, while Easter is kind of a free-for-all with all the cousins, grandparents, and everyone in between.

At any rate, all in all it was a fantastic day, and I'm so glad that Wess (who is notoriously shy about coming to family gatherings larger than 6) came and enjoyed himself!